Kukla's Korner Hockey

Hakan Andersson was sitting at a Stockholm-area mall, having lunch with a friend when a 16-year-old boy walked up to him and said something quite unusual.

“Are you Hakan Andersson, the scout from Detroit?”

If you’re in the line of work that Andersson is, fame is nice, but a hurdle in getting the job done.

“First-time ever it’s happened to me in my entire life,” said Andersson of being recognized. “I think people around the rinks might know me, but that’s about it. I buy my ticket, walk in, stand in a corner, watch. I don’t want anybody to know. If you’re on what I call a little mission, watching a guy in a lesser-known league, then you want to be in the corner. You don’t want anyone to say, ‘I saw the Red Wings scout here last game.’”